Injured Soldier Conscious & Joking

Canadian Press:
A Canadian soldier who suffered severe head wounds in an axe attack in Afghanistan has gone from a drug-induced coma to quipping with nurses about his beer-drinking skills, according to his wife.

The recovery of Capt. Trevor Greene, a civil-military co-operation officer, after the incident on March 4 is detailed in a blog by Debbie.

She responded by telephone to an e-mail request for an interview and confirmed she wrote the entry, but she declined to provide any more details or give her last name.

"Some would say it is a miracle he has made it this far," she said in the entry, dated Wednesday.

She said Greene began physiotherapy this week at Vancouver General Hospital, where he was transferred after a brief stay at a U.S. military facility in Landstuhl, Germany.

Greene, 41, was attacked while he was sitting down for what he thought would be a friendly gathering of elders in an Afghanistan village. More...

Atlas Shrugged On The Big Screen?

Interesting if true. This was one of my favorite books back in the 70's.

Variety:
Ayn Rand's most ambitious novel may finally be brought to the bigscreen after years of false starts.

Lionsgate has picked up worldwide distribution rights to "Atlas Shrugged" from Howard and Karen Baldwin ("Ray"), who will produce with John Aglialoro.

As for stars, book provides an ideal role for an actress in lead character Dagny Taggart, so it's not a stretch to assume Rand enthusiast Angelina JolieAngelina Jolie's name has been brought up. Brad PittBrad Pitt, also a fan, is rumored to be among the names suggested for lead male character John Galt.

"Atlas Shrugged," which runs more than 1,100 pages, has faced a lengthy and circuitous journey to a film adaptation.

The Russian-born author's seminal tome, published in 1957, revolves around the economic collapse of the U.S. sometime in the future and espouses her individualistic philosophy of objectivism. The violent, apocalyptic ending has always posed a challenge but could prove especially so in the post-9/11 climate. More...

Frank At IMAO Wants War

We Need a War for Oil
An Editorial by Frank J.

I filled up my SUV this weekend, and, after seeing the bill, my immediate reaction was, "Someone must die for this!" After a little thought, I knew who should die: foreigners. Foreigners with oil.

We need a war for oil. - More @ IMAO

Via Pajamas Media

Fallen Soldiers Returning Home

IED explosion April 22 2006
Scene of the roadside bomb incident of the 22 April 2006 where four Canadian Forces soldiers were killed while travelling in an armoured G-Wagon near the Gumbad platoon house at about 7:30 a.m. Kandahar Time. - Combat Camera

Fallen soldiers get sendoff at ramp ceremony - CTV

New Endangered Species

Men hallucinate after eating fish

Two men have suffered terrifying visual and auditory hallucinations after eating a popular local seafish in Mediterranean restaurants.

According to a clinical study on the patients, which is due to be published in the journal Clinical Toxicology, the men started seeing and hearing things after contracting a rare form of hallucinogenic poisoning from the Salema fish they were dining on.

The species is a popular food fish and is not normally hallucinogenic.

Ichthyoallyeinotoxism, or hallucinogenic fish poisoning, is caused by eating the heads or body parts of certain species of herbivorous fish and has previously only been recorded from the Indo Pacific.

The effects of eating ichthyoallyeinotoxic fishes, such as certain mullet, goatfish, tangs, damsels and rabbitfish, are believed to be similar to LSD, and may include vivid and terrifying auditory and visual hallucinations. This has given rise to the collective common name for ichthyoallyeinotoxic fishes of "dream fish". More @ Practical Fishkeeping

Via Daily Grail

Junk Science Watch

Error strikes 'BBC climate model'

A "major error" has been discovered in the world's biggest online climate prediction project, backed by the BBC.

The fault in a Climateprediction.net model launched in February causes temperatures in past climates to rise quicker than seen in real observations.

The program, which runs on users' computers when they are idle, aims to generate forecasts of climate change.

The project scientists have now fixed the fault and say the data collected so far is still useful. More @ BBC

Recommended Listening For The Week

Humble Pie
Rockin' The Fillmore

1971 commercial breakthrough for band which featured Steve Marriott (Small Faces), Greg Ridley (Spooky Tooth) & Peter Framton who left soon after to pursue a solo career.

Steyn On Global Warming, Cooling, & Whatever

Nothing to fear but the climate change alarmists
Mark Steyn - Chicago Sun-Times

...Back then it was just crazies like Reagan and Thatcher who had nukes, so you can understand why everyone was terrified. But now Kim Jong-Il and the ayatollahs have them, so we're all sophisticated and relaxed about it, like the French hearing that their president's acquired a couple more mistresses...

So what should we worry about? How about -- stop me if you've heard this one before -- "climate change"? That's the subject of Al Gore's new movie, ''An Inconvenient Truth.'' Like the trailer says: "If you love your planet -- if you love your children -- you have to see this movie." Even if you were planning to kill your children because you don't want them to live in a nuclear wasteland, see this movie. The mullahs won't get a chance to nuke us because, thanks to rising sea levels, Tehran will be under water. The editor of the New Yorker, David Remnick, says the Earth will "likely be an uninhabitable planet." The archbishop of Canterbury, in a desperate attempt to cut the Anglican Communion a slice of the Gaia-worship self-flagellation action, demands government "coercion" on everything from reduced speed limits to ending cheap air travel "if we want the global economy not to collapse and millions, billions of people to die." - More

Savages

The mother of 18-year-old suicide bomber Sami Salim Hamad holds a poster proclaiming Hamad as a martyr at their family's house in the West Bank village of Arakah near Jenin April 18, 2006. Hamad killed nine people and wounded 60 others in a suicide attack in Tel Aviv, Israel on Monday. REUTERS/Ammar Awad

“Even though I am suffering, my suicide bomber son was a hero”. - TimesOnline Via LGF

List of the Murdered - Michelle Malkin
David Shaulov, 29, from Holon
Philip Balhasan, 45, from Ashdod
Victor Erez, 60, from Givataim
Binyamin Chafuta, 47, from Lod
Lily Yunes, 42, from Oranit
Rosalia Basnia, 48, a Romanian foreign worker
Bodha Piroshka, 50, a Romanian foreign worker
Ariel Darhi, 31 from Bat Yam
Marcel Cohen, 73, from Nice, France

Rogerism Updated

I finally got around to updating the site I made to showcase the artwork created by Roger Ing of The Utopia Cafe in Regina. I have added a few new pics and will add some more links later. I took care of this tonight after my nephew Vinnie told me that the documentary "Roger Ing's Utopia" by Judith Silverthorne is recommended viewing in the Asian Studies Program at Cornell. If anyone has any Rogerism pics, send them by and I will put them up.

Stupidity Reigns At NBC

As Michelle Malkin reported here Dateline NBC was planning to manufacture a news story on Americans exibiting racist attitudes towards muslims. Their target... Nascar fans. In todays update on the story Nascar is plenty pissed at NBC stating "This is outrageous for a news organization with the reputation of NBC to stoop to the level of attempting to create news instead of reporting it. Any legitimate journalist should be ashamed."

The money quote is from a Nascar fan though:
Chris S. was also at the Martinsville race last weekend. He didn't see the ringers, but he did share this:

My wife and I attended last weekend's NASCAR race in Martinsville, and had a wonderful time. But if NBC wants to guarantee they get a negative reaction to their "plant", all they need to do is put him in a Jeff Gordon t-shirt. The Dale Earnhardt, Jr. fans will be sure to give him a rough time! His fans are definitely the most vocal of them all.

Too funny.

The Other Side Of The Saskatchewan Exodus

Polygamist group 'not welcome here'
Saskatchewan officials oppose migration of fundamentalist Mormon splinter sect

The possibility of Saskatchewan becoming a second Canadian stronghold for a fundamentalist Mormon splinter group that practices polygamy isn't something government officials here are about to welcome with open arms.

"Polygamy is against the law in Canada and, perhaps more importantly, there are laws against the sexual exploitation of children and minors," Frank Quennell, Saskatchewan's Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, said yesterday.

"Those laws will be enforced in Saskatchewan and we certainly don't have the welcome mat out for anybody who would break them," he added.

The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is led by fugitive Warren Jeffs and teaches polygamy as its central tenet. It is based in the twin border towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., where about 10,000 church members live.

Mr. Jeffs is wanted on a U.S. federal charge of unlawful flight to avoid prosecution after allegations he arranged a plural marriage between a 16-year-old girl and an older man. - Globe & Mail

Deportation or jail are just two possible solutions to this crap.

Evil Conservatives Spoil Sharon's New Flick

Hollywood Elites Blame “Basic Instinct 2” Failure on Christianity and Conservatism

This one wasn’t hard to predict: With the box office failure of newly released “erotic thriller” called “Basic Instinct 2,” Hollywood elites are blaming the slumping interest in such films on Conservatives and the recent return to Christian values rather than the poor quality of the movies. According to Reuters (hat tip to Drudge):

“Paul Verhoeven, director of the first ‘Basic Instinct’ (which scored $353 million worldwide) as well as the widely ridiculed ‘Showgirls’ (now regarded as something of a camp classic), attributes the genre's demise to the current American political climate.

"‘Anything that is erotic has been banned in the United States,’ said the Dutch native. “‘Look at the people at the top (of the government). We are living under a government that is constantly hammering out Christian values. And Christianity and sex have never been good friends.’"

Let me clue you in, Paul: People didn’t go to see “Showgirls” because it was a derivative piece of tripe with a bad script, bad acting, bad directing, and bad editing. Other than that, the film was absolutely fabulous. More @ News Busters

Conservatives Need Not Apply

Michael Barone on the 9 to 1 ratio of liberals to conservatives in the MSM.

When Cartoons Are Not Enough

Drinking From Home: First they came for the Buddhas...

This shouldn't surprise anyone.